The mountains of dirt are back at Belmont Park.
They became part of the complex's landscape in 2019. That was when construction began on the 19,000-seat UBS Arena at Belmont Park that is home to the NHL's New York Islanders, and that chewed up about half of the track's backyard and a parking area behind its grandstand.
Now it's the racetrack's turn to begin a renovation process that in the next five years will transform Belmont Park into a state-of-the-art facility built for the realities of racing in the 2020's and beyond.
"It's going to be an incredible complex once we finish," said Glen Kozak, the New York Racing Association's senior vice president of operations and capital projects.
The first step in bringing Beautiful Belmont Park and its 54-year-old grandstand into the modern era began a few months ago with the construction of retaining walls so that a tunnel to the infield could be built. Now the second part of that process is underway with the massive task of excavating the dirt and setting the concrete for a 504-foot-long, 48-foot-wide tunnel from the backstretch to the infield that will be 33 feet underground.
"It's a massive excavation of sand. Fortunately, there is good product out there, so the excavation has been fairly quick," Kozak said.
While the tunnel ultimately will enable patrons to enter the infield from the racetrack's parking lots and Long Island Railroad station, for now it will allow trucks to drive into the infield. That will allow infrastructure work to be done to pave the way for work in the next few years, when NYRA will rebuild its main dirt track and two turf courses and add a fourth track, most likely with a synthetic Tapeta surface.
"On one side it will be a pedestrian tunnel and the other have a vehicular path so that we can get trucks and other vehicles through it," Kozak said.
"Obviously it's multi-purposed. It gives us access to the infield so that we can continue construction while everything is going on over a multi-year span and we are not damaging the surfaces by driving over them to get to the infield."
While the tunnel is expected to be finished by the end of November, the infrastructure work will be a lengthy process. Before work on any of the tracks begins, Kozak said there are numerous projects to address, such as building a lined infield pond for irrigation and a pump station, and doing all of the electrical work to connect with a power grid that was installed for the arena and the complex.
When completed, the tunnel will allow that infield work to be completed without damaging the main track and turf courses that will re-open for racing and training in the spring.
"There's a ton of infrastructure work that has to be done and we're also doing things like applying for permission to use well water," Kozak said.
Although the upcoming Belmont Park fall race meet was moved to Aqueduct Racetrack due to the construction work, training will continue on a daily basis. With the tunnel positioned near the three-quarters pole, shadow fencing will be put up at the 11/16ths and 13/16ths poles, allowing horses to gallop on turf and dirt over 11 of the track's 12 furlongs.
"We're losing about an eighth of a mile for training, so we are adding another outrider position to help with that," Kozak said. "We want to accommodate the trainers during this time because we realize it is an inconvenience for them, and (the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association) has done a great of helping us deal with it."
Once the tunnel is finished, the next phase will consist of covering the tunnel with the proper dirt for each course so that Belmont can resume normal activities in the spring.
After that, once racing moves to Saratoga Race Course in July for the 2023 meet, work on the courses is expected to begin. Kozak said the order for working on the three existing tracks and adding the fourth one has yet to be determined.
"We are working on a schedule to present to the NYRA Board detailing what our next steps will be. That has not been defined," Kozak said. "But with the tunnel in place, we can decide if we will work on putting in a fourth track first or redoing a turf or dirt course first. We are going through the modeling now to see what makes the most sense about the scheduling. To get four tracks done in a year's time is unrealistic. We don't want to lose a Belmont Stakes (G1), so we are looking at the best scenario for phasing all of this to have the least amount of impact on the horsemen. There will be a tunnel to the grandstand, but that's coming later. Our goal is to do the infrastructure work and get the turf courses back together and the main track back together so that we can have spring racing and training at Belmont."
Though construction plans for next year have not been finalized, should work on the racing surfaces begin after the spring meet, it would likely force NYRA to move next year's fall meet to Aqueduct as well.
Once the surfaces are finished, the final phase, and the most meaningful one for fans, will get underway with the renovation of a grandstand and clubhouse structure as long as the Empire State Building is tall.
For New York racing fans in their mid-60s and older, the construction at Belmont is resurrecting dusty memories of 1963-67, when the original Belmont Park was razed and a racetrack that opened its doors in 1905 was remodeled to include a magnificent grandstand for the huge crowds that would stream into the building on a regular basis. Back in 1970, the fall meet at Belmont Park boasted an average attendance of 27,425 and the new grandstand and clubhouse sections bustled with activity, but that was the track's last meet before off-track betting was introduced.
In the ensuing years, as off-track wagering became increasingly popular, attendance began an ugly downward spiral. These days, more than half of the cavernous building is deserted on a daily basis, and NYRA officials are well aware that the key to a successful future for New York racing calls for a consolidation of downstate racing at Belmont Park in a smaller, year-round facility with the kind of modern amenities sports fans covet.
"When we right-size the building, our goal is to be able to have it set up like other venues, where we have the ability to expand it on big days but to also have it where it's more efficient and with the right amenities on a daily basis," Kozak said. "The key is to have something that is functional for the daily operation and have the ability to accordion or ramp up for events like the Belmont Stakes or Stars and Stripes or when we're able to get the Breeders' Cup back."
